


Don't Turn Around

by midnight_cowboy



Series: Echoes [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Drama, Gen, M/M, Missing Scene, Pre-Canon, Prosthesis, References to Canon, and now you all get a translated version of it! ain't life great?, oh this fic is still my best Russian fic. love it, somebody come fix my grammar!! im still abysmal with parts of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 06:20:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20372083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnight_cowboy/pseuds/midnight_cowboy
Summary: it's a mantra, it's a prayer, it's a hope. no one will hear, but he hopes the other would.





	Don't Turn Around

_..._

_Don't turn around. _

When Saren presses the button that launches the power of miniature mass accelerator inside his pistol, not a single sound is made: not in vain did he use the best Geth technologies, thus achieving complete silence and control from his weapons.

But his hands are shaking, and his finger is about to strike too loud, too early on the trigger, and then Nihlus would turn around. This cannot be allowed.

_Don't turn around. _

...

“Don't turn around”, Saren puts his hand on the handrail next to Nihlus', barely smothering the urge to grab him and jerk him closer, so that the student stands very close and the Spectre can control him. But Nihlus, actually listening to him for once, doesn't turn around. He puts his elbows on the handrail and leans on it slightly, making his posture even more at ease, looking relaxed, and leaning into his mentor's space whispers softly:

“How much and who?”

“Our target. Loria's mercenaries, I suppose”, Arterius opens his mandibles in a hint of a grin. “I’ve counted fifteen, of which four are well-equipped krogans, but it seems to me that there is also the sixteenth. I noticed a strange flicker at the bar a couple of times.”

“Well, for such money as that matriarch offers in order to get rid of the Council’s persecution, it’s quite possible to buy a well-trained gang with entirety of it giblets on Omega. Although sixteen of them - it must be they're underestimating you and I, sir”, Kryik grins openly and glances at his mentor, waiting for an answer. 

Saren does not respond for a while, watching the asari dancing at the pole. In the AfterLife they hoped to find information about Loria D'Laqua, an Asari matriarch who had previously worked in the C-Sec in a high position and run from there with data of galactic importance. Instead what the pair did was eventually attract unnecessary attention and mercenaries. Wonderful.

“They underestimate me. You – they don't count you in, Kryik, at all”, - a half-grin once again, but rather a nervous one: Saren is trying to think out the escape routes, but each ends with an unnecessary shot from him or Nihlus, and not just some increased attention. Not to forget a furious Aria.

“Saren... Maybe we should dance?”

Arterius literally chokes on air. Then he hisses indignantly: “Crazy, Kryik?!”

“Think what you will, sir”, - no, this young turian is definitely mocking him, the mandibles on his face refusing to shut, frozen in a broad smile, “But if we do this, we will provoke them to act; most likely, one of these assholles won't hold back because of all the tension and shoot at you or me. Panic starts, we mingle in with the crowd, swipe the data from their networks, and all while the AfterLife guards deal with the mercenaries themselves. After all, as you know...”

“...'You don't fuck with Aria'”, this time around Saren grins for real, “Well, it's worth a try. Such a frank... mockery on our part would definitely blow them up. In about ten minutes. May I invite you?” - the grin becomes somewhat malicious as he reaches a hand out to his student. The latter gallantly accepts it, as if he had dreamed of doing it all his life.

Kryik, he must say, could lead very well.

Shooting began after just five minutes of mad dancing.

...

“Don't turn around!” – Saren wheezes these words with all his might; it’s hard for him to run, the horrible wind hits his helmet face-first, he’s about to lose consciousness, too much blood is lost, but he is _still running,_ keeping up with his partner, otherwise his idiot Kryik will put himself under someone's bullet.

Nihlus does not turn around, only squints his eyes at the sight in front of him and throws his mentor's arm onto his shoulder, so that if needed he'd be able to catch Saren and carry him until they reach the shuttle. Arterius does not like this helplessness, _hates_ when others try to offer him help or doubt his strength, but he really is on the verge of life and death, and he allows the student to behave this way.

“I wish for this entire Edol to just explode, Spirits forsaken place, and for myself to be at that moment as far from this fucked up planet as it ispossible”, Saren thinks out loud, somewhat distantly, as if being torn away from his own body.

He no longer has a left arm. It was torn off by an explosion when some mercenary, realizing that the thresher maw did not want to obey its "masters" anymore, decided to kill the turian from a rocket launcher. He himself was killed by a monster a couple of seconds after the shot. And now, only a part of Saren's shoulder remained, and a piece of meat, barely sticking to a piece of bone, slaps moist and vile against his side.

Saren is sick down to his guts. Circles and flashes explode before his eyes, and he almost faints, knees buckling.

“Saren!” - Nihlus' voice sounds scared and perplexed, and he is about to stop and turn around, which simply cannot be allowed - the moment he sees the terrible wounds his mentor suffered, as well as the enraged giant creature behind, his thoughts might scatter and emotions overcome the logic of 'gun it to the escape as fast as we can'. That's why Arterius grips the fingers of the sruviving arm tightly on the student’s shoulder and growls: 

“Don't you _dare_ turn around!”

Kryik obeys him, even though the Spectre hears how his mandibles grit; after that, Saren picks the pace back up, from a fast walk to a run once again, side to side with his student.

He does not remember when he lost consciousness - he comes to himself already being strapped to a seat inside the shuttle, with inept, but neatly dressed wounds. Nihlus frowns at his mentor from a seat across, and is rolling something between his fingers.

It is a pity, Saren thinks, that they still did not manage to complete the task. Now it won't be possible to solve the problem quietly with the Salarian illegal base they've found, and the Council will be dissatisfied. Well, the Council can shove it, they barely got out alive.

“Three. Two. One”, voice suddenly sounds, and out of a corner of his eye Saren sees how Kryik squeezes what he was holding in his hand – a detonator.

The blast wave shakes the shuttle with force, but it soon calmly continues to move towards the orbiting ship.

'You... smart lil' asshole', Arterius thinks, suddenly full of chest burning pride, before losing consciousness completely.

...

“Don't turn around”.

Nihlus startles, grabs the gun off his holster and takes less than half a step back, after which he bumps his back on Saren's chestplate, who chuckles softly. The second he hears a familiar voice, Kryik relaxes almost instantly, holstering his weapon back up, and puts his elbows on the railing again, separating the tier they're on from the Presidium. Even if he wanted to leave, the hands of the former mentor on either side of him prevent this.

“At least I taught you something. Congratulations, Spectre Kryik”, - Arterius grins, - “Although you are still quite a blockhead, in my opinion”.

The sigh that escapes the other is not an amused one, but rather... contented. They stand still for a couple of silent, weightless moments, until a sharp enhale from Nihlus interrupts:

“Actually, I must report to the Council that you arrived at the Citadel. They are quite”, the younger turian stammers here, but not in search of a suitable word – from the fact that he finally sees a terrible prosthesis instead of an arm on his right. Saren hears him swallow: “They are interested in your opinion about the failure of the mission on Tuchanka. Apparently, without me you are not doing so well, so I’m not such an idiot as you say!”

“Don’t you bully me, Kryik,” Saren clicks his mandibles in displeasure, “Unfavorable circumstances, and nothing more. The Council would find that utterly uninteresting, I suppose”.

“...Still, if they find out that I saw you ...”

“You can't see me now though, right?”

Nihlus laughs.

“And, as a fully decorated Spectre, you no longer need to report to the Council about each and every single one of your actions. Only the goal and the result are important”.

“You... you're right. As always, Saren.”

_As always_ only in these particular scenarious, but he lets Kryik have this moment.

They talk for a long time, about an hour, after which Nihlus, still not turning around, leaves for his apartment with a fake chipper goodbye, still unhappy with , and Saren goes to the Docks. He left some unfinished businessbehind in Perseus Veil

For some reason, it feels as if the former student’s heavy and suspicious gaze drills his back, but he does not trust this feeling. After all, Nihlus would never turn around at his orders.

Sovereign awakens a month later.

...

_Just don't turn around,_ Saren thinks deep inside. _I won't be able to stand it. _

Nihlus trusts him explicitly, exposes a defenseless nape with ease; he doesn't have a visor to protect at least parts of his head, not even an elongated plated collar to make his neck shown less from the back. Saren does _not_ want to kill him, but he must, because later it will be much harder to do. Sovereign will see to that. 

If only he does not turn around.

_Don't turn around._

_Don't turn around._

_Don’t tu--_

**Author's Note:**

> he turned around.
> 
> Nihlus' body in ME1 is found in a very curious position to me: it's not moved, not touched, but he lies there, face up, slackjawed. So this was born out of the epiphany of 'NIHLUS TURNED AROUND!!'
> 
> How did I write it back then? Oh right, БOLb N БE3bICXODHOCTb. 
> 
> [rinnannon](https://twitter.com/rinnannon) on twitter if you wanna yell at me


End file.
